


Better Than Flying

by arachnistar



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Penguins, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-27
Updated: 2013-08-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 21:06:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/944655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arachnistar/pseuds/arachnistar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Penguin AU. Rose and the Doctor go looking for feathers to build wings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better Than Flying

**Author's Note:**

> Came up with the idea as I was drifting off to bed last night. Yep, this is just the sorta thing my brain comes up with.

The Doctor perched on a stone, head tilted back to stare at the blue sky. It was empty save for a few wheeling skuas in the distance. If only he could join them up there, see what the world looked like from above, feel the wind run through his feathers. His stubby flippers flapped up and down and he tried giving a little hop, but he didn’t lift up so much as an inch.

“Whatcha doing out here?” He turned to see that another chick had wandered over. “’S dangerous so far from the group.”

“You wandered off too.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Yeah.”   

She waddled closer and looked up in the direction he’d been looking. Her eyes tracked the birds for a moment and then looked out, to the horizon where the dark sea waited. Without taking her eyes off the horizon, she said, “My name’s Rose Tyler.”

“I’m the Doctor.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, her studying the sky and him her. She was smaller than him, but had the same feather coloration – dark grey on back, white below. Her beak was pale orange edged with black. She watched the sky with an intensity in her gaze that he imagined matched his own.  

“You never answered my question.” Rose turned to look at him.

“Ah. Right.” He looked down at his peach-colored feet, shuffled them around. “I was thinking about flying. About me flying.” He looked over at her, braced himself for the usual laughter, the usual speech about penguins not flying. It didn’t come.

Instead she simply turned her head back to the sky. He waited a few more seconds and then she turned back, almost shy in her confession, “Sometimes I dream about flying. I’d love to.”  

He bobbed his head, excited words babbling forth from his beak. “I’ve been watching the other birds and what they have that we don’t. Big wings, that’s what they have. Lots of feathers sticking out. So I was thinking if I had better feathers and then enough momentum to launch myself into the air, I could fly. All I need is feathers and something to stick them to me. It could work, Rose.”

“Building our own wings?”  

“Brilliant, isn’t it?”  

“Absolutely mad, you are.” She stuck her tongue out at him and then tilted her head in thought. “There are lots of feathers by the cliffs. Let’s go.”  

He blinked at her. “You want to come?”

“Better with two, yeah?”

He agreed and the two set off towards the cliffs. As they walked, he chattered about his observations of other birds in flight, of their techniques, the way their wings moved at different points in flight to take advantage of wind currents. For her part, Rose pressed him with good questions (some that he didn’t have the answer to but he tried anyway).

They eventually reached the cliffs and sure to Rose’s word, feathers were scattered all around the base of the cliff. It was marvelous, far more than he would’ve expected to find in any one location. Building proper wings seemed much closer to reality now.   

“We need the big ones, not the little, fluffy ones. Those don’t do anything for flying.” The Doctor instructed, kicking at a pile of fluff.    

The shafts of some feathers were broken and others had lost their glossy sheen, but some were newly fallen and not in such bad condition. A pile of acceptable feathers rapidly began to grow between the two of them.

“Doctor?”

“Hmm.” He didn’t look up from the pile he was sifting through. It was a good pile; he’d already excavated three good feathers and wasn’t even halfway through it.   

“I think I know why there are so many feathers here.”    

“What?”

“Look up.”

He tilted his head up to the top of the cliffs. Several skuas perched up there, preening and fluffing their feathers. A new one arrived, bearing a small shape in its beak.

“Oh.”

“We should go.” Rose added, waddling over to his side.

The Doctor cast a glance at the feathers they had gathered. They were so close, just a few more and they would have enough for two sets of small wings. He was sure of it.

“We just need a few more. Then we can go. Promise.”

Rose looked up at the skua nests and then over at their collection and back again. Finally she sighed. “I’ll keep watch. Jus’ hurry.”

He set to work at a faster rate than before, discarding broken or soft feathers and adding the good ones to their pile. He didn’t want to endanger their lives, but they were so close and the other birds hadn’t noticed them yet so what could a few more minutes hurt?

“We’re good.”      

Rose picked up half the pile in her beak and he picked up the other half. They waddled off, back to the safety of their rookery. A cry rose up from behind them. His heart beat faster.  

“Go,” he mumbled from around his mouthful of feathers. She returned his fearful yet exhilarated stare and they set off at a faster pace. It didn’t help.

A skua, big and brown, dove down. He saw Rose trip from the corner of his eye, the skua missing her by a few centimeters. It landed a little away from her and turned around, head bobbing. Another cry left its beak.

The skua stalked closer. Rose pushed herself off the ground, body trembling, feathers fluffing out in a meager attempt to look larger. She was still far too small.   

“Rose!”

The Doctor spat out his feathers without a second thought and waddled towards her, just as the skua lunged. He got in the way, felt the skua’s beak clamp down around his middle instead of hers. The skua tilted its head up, lifting him off the ground. His feet wriggled in the air as it spread its wings.  

He’d finally get to fly. Not what he had envisioned, mind you, but he would see the world from above just before he died. He could’ve laughed if he wasn’t terrified out of his feathers. At least she was okay. There was that. And flying, there was that too. It didn’t seem like enough, the flying, not on its own anyway, but coupled with her safety... well, he supposed it was worth it.  

The skua released him with an earsplitting shriek. He fell to the ground, dazed, and watched the bird flap off. Red dripped from its foot. _You’re supposed to take me with you._ He thought, body shaking.  

Rose’s face appeared in his field of vision, blocking the sky from view. A drop of blood rolled off her beak and plopped on his face. He blinked.

“You okay?”

“Still alive, aren’t I?” His body ached from where the skua’s beak had pressed on him, but there didn’t appear to be any blood.  

She sighed in relief. “Can you walk?”

“Think so.” The Doctor pushed himself off the ground. He swayed for a moment and then steadied. Rose pressed to his side and they started the way back to the rookery.

After a few minutes of quiet waddling, Rose said, “That was the bravest and dumbest thing I’ve seen anyone do.”  

“Yeah?” He puffed up his chest.

She bumped his side. “Oi, don’t be so pleased. You almost died.”

“Would’ve if it wasn’t for you… Y’know, you could’ve left me, gotten to safety on your own while it was distracted.”

“You could’ve too.”

“Nah, I couldn’t ditch you.”  

“An’ I’m the same.”   

Silence fell over them, each penguin to their own thoughts. The Doctor would’ve loved a chance to fly, would’ve loved the chance to see the world from above, but this was better. Waddling with Rose, the skua might fly but it didn’t have anything like this. No one like her, ready to jump into adventure with him even if it was mad, brave enough not to abandon a mate in the face of danger.   

“You got that skua really good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” They both glanced at each other, giddiness and joy mirrored in one another’s eyes. “It’s definitely in competition with my move for bravest and dumbest thing ever.”

“Bravest, sure, but not dumbest.” Her tongue peeked out from her beak. “He couldn’t do anything with a beakful of you.”

“Suppose you’re smarter then.”

“Yep.”  

“You’re not supposed to agree with me!”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Sorry, course ‘m not smarter than you. You’re a genius, you are.”  

“Tell you what though, you’re brilliant, Rose. And that’s sincere, not like your little bit of sarcasm.”

 “Ta. An’ you’re not so bad yourself, Doctor.”

The cries of other penguins filled the air as they neared the rookery. The Doctor didn’t particularly want to part ways with Rose, but he could hear the voices of his parents calling him for feeding. They wouldn’t be pleased that he’d wandered off yet again.

His stomach grumbled. Looked like he’d have to face them sooner than later if he wanted to have his fill. Still, he had to say something to her before getting food.

“We made a good team back there.”

Rose paused. He stopped with her, shuffling his feet on the stony ground. She bobbed her head, eyes gleaming with excitement.  

“We did, yeah.”

He rubbed his beak against his shoulder and tried not to hope too much. Then, nerves steeled, he looked at her. “We should do it again. Well, not the cliffs and not the almost-getting-eaten bit, but the exploring. We could find some hills to go down. If you want.”

“I’d like that.”

She opened her beak to say more, but a loud call interrupted any words. “Rose Marion Tyler, where have you been?”  

Rose dropped her head. “That’d be my mum.”

“Right. See you later, good luck, an’ all that.”

Eyes wide – he had no intention of meeting her mum after Rose had almost gotten eaten (even if he had saved her) – the Doctor hurried off. He could hear Rose’s mum begin a lecture about the dangers of young chicks wandering off from their parents when another cry caught his attention. His own mum calling for him.

Well, he’d have to face her eventually and since his stomach was rumbling (nothing like life-or-death situations to make you hungry), this was as good a time as any.      


End file.
